Our wedding day, December 14, 2006

This time of year most people are laser-focused on the holidays, but at the Lowandslow household we have something a bit more personal to celebrate, too.  It was six years ago today that K and I said our "I-do's".  And like 'ol Blue Eyes sang, "We did it our way".

K and I met by extreme chance online back in Ought Six.  That's when I signed up for my free Journal Space account.  Not really understanding what I had, I started surfing it to take a look around.  That's where I saw a picture posted by dkmcb (male? female?) of a dandelion.  dkmcb asked what it was as they were coming up all over dkmcb's yard.  I answered and told said person how to control them.  (Yes, "Better living through chemistry".)

A few days later I found another post by dkmcb saying a painting project was planned and asking how to keep brush marks from showing in fresh enamel?  I answered that, too.  (Penetrol)  Said dkmcb contacted me asking how I knew these things?  (As a homeowner for 30+ years I'd pretty much seen it all.)

Think about it....if I'd logged on to Journal Space a few seconds earlier or later I probably would not have seen dkmcb's dandelion photo.  Now THAT'S fate!

Correspondence revealed dkmcb was a female from near Ft. Worth, Texas, temporarily trapped in the frozen north of Minnesnowta, her move back south approaching.   We became "smit" through JS.  It soon became obvious to us both there was "something" there.

Fast forward to autumn 2006.  We were together by then, and as patience had never been a virtue either of us possessed, we decided to make "us" permanent.  Both of us are very private people uncomfortable being the center of attention.  Hoping friends and family would understand, we decided to just take off for a romantic destination and get married.

Finalists were picturesque places near Jackson Hole, WY and Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA.  Turns out that by our chosen date, December 14, the Jackson Hole destination was closed for the winter, but further research showed Carmel would be perfect.

K-the-online-shopper found our hotel....The Tickle Pink Inn.  Huh?  "That sounds like some kind of sleazy 'No-Tell Motel'".  (Turns out the original property was owned by the Tickle family.)  We flew into San Francisco, picked up our rental chariot for the week (a mighty Ford Taurus), and headed south to the Monterrey Peninsula.

Once we found the semi-hidden turnoff and climbed the long winding road up to the top of the hill, we found the Tickle Pink Inn to be truly special.  WOW!  What a view!  (See it here if you like.)  Our very nice room had an intimate balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  We spent many hours sitting out there listening to the waves crashing on the rocks below.  We'd even leave the sliding door open a little at night to hear it then, too.  It was the perfect "white noise" to go to sleep to.  The staff was gracious, our room service breakfast delicious, and the evening "wine and cheese socials" were nice, too.

We took day trips down the Pacific Coast Highway to Big Sur and the Hearst Castle at San Simeon, and of course enjoyed all the sights in/around Pebble Beach.  We found several quaint little cafes where we'd sit for hours at sidewalk tables eating and drinking....so nice!  

And Carmel-by-the-Sea....what a story-book place!  (This was the town where Clint Eastwood was mayor, before he took to talking to empty chairs. :)  The town was all decorated up beautifully for Christmas and the temps were comfortably cool but not really cold.  

And there was an entire area near downtown filled with whimsical little houses like these, much appreciated by an architecture aficionado like myself.

Our big day finally arrived.  We had an appointment with a non-denominational minister at "The Chapel in the Woods".  It turns out it was more like "The Building With Some Trees Around it Right Next Door to the Strip Shopping Center."  K saw it the day before when we made a dry run and was devastated.  I told her to find some place else....it was OK with me.  But the minister (a lady) seemed nice, so we (K) stuck with our original plan.  As things turned out the inside was decorated beautifully with lots of Christmas cheer.  All turned out well.

A funny moment:  As we were getting back in our car to leave the minister ran out yelling to us, "Oh Scott and Kelly....THANK YOU...THANK YOU...THANK YOU!!"  It seems the $100 gratuity she just found in her envelope over-and-above the normal fee was apparently not customary in California.

All things considered, it was a perfect, private ceremony, and a perfect way to launch a perfect new life with a perfect new mate. 

Six years later and things just get better and better.  Life is very good!  I love you K.  Happy Anniversary.  :)

S

An open letter to Audi

Dear Audi,

First, let me say how much I enjoy the car you built for me.  It's really fast, but it doesn't look like it should be.  Most cops don't even look twice when I slam on my brakes then coast through their speed trap.  They just assume it was the kid in the red Camaro running beside me that pegged their radar gun.  Haha!  And it gets good gas mileage and doesn't break, either, which makes me very happy.

That said, there is one little thing that I don't like about the car you built for me.  See that tiny little space between my seat and the console? ^ It's about 1/4 of an inch wide.  My fingers are wider than that.  A LOT wider.  So whenever I drop something down into that narrow gap it's pretty much gone forever.  

That's not so bad if it's just an old french fry or a freebie pen that says "Stolen from Mabel's Whore House" or something, but occasionally something of value drops in there.  Like today, when I was sitting there minding my own business, eating a brownie after lunch that K (that's my wife) made for me.

That's when I dropped my stylus....it's like a pencil with an eraser on the end (but with no lead) that I use to push the little bitty keys on my tablet keyboard.  Have I mentioned that I have "not skinny" fingers?  Well, without a stylus to push all those little bitty keys, a tablet is pretty much just a rock with a data plan.  I pushed the seat all the way forward and tried sticking my hand under from the back seat, but all I could grab hold of was a bunch of wires.

Then I tried running the seat all the way to the back and stuck my hand in from the front, but just found a bunch of petrified french fries and something else I couldn't begin to identify.  I tried sliding a ruler down the crack (that sounds really gross, doesn't it?) but didn't find my stylus that way either.  Did you know Tic Tac's have a shelf life of years?  I swear, they're like Twinkies!

Anyway, I finally went and got one of those telescoping thingys with a magnet on the end and that did the trick.  Here's my point:  Please, either make that gap at least an inch wide so us guys with clumsy "not skinny" fingers can get down in there, or put one of those telescoping magnet things in the toolkit you pack under the spare tire.

Thank you....er....Dankeschön.

Lowandslow

Frisco, Texas USA

In Seattle latte's are out....Cheetos are now in.

It looks like Seattle has enthusiastically embraced the recent vote to legalize marijuana in Washington.  ;)

So today is 12.12.12, a "once in a lifetime" event.  Do you have anything planned to celebrate?  Fuzzy's is offering $1.20 tacos all day.  WooHoo!  Yeah, I know....kinda pitiful, huh?

I understand there are women having C-sections in order to deliver their babies on 12.12.12.  Isn't that kinda extreme?  Is it really that big deal?

I see that Ravi Shankar, the famous Indian sitarist, has passed away at age 92.  I never cared for that kind of music, but I surely do enjoy the music his daughter, Nora Jones, makes.

It's looking more and more like we're going over the fiscal cliff on January 1st.  Get out your wallet and prepare to fork over more taxes to The Gubment.  Now they're saying that even if Bronco Bama and John Boner can come to some sort of Grand Compromise, Boner can't deliver the votes from his ultra-ideologically conservative Tea Party faction.   Prepare to be thrown under the bus. 

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At our house we don't need no stinkin' "atomic clock".  We have Luke the Wonder Dog.  His internal body clock is uncanny.  Every day, 7-days a week, he wakes up at the exact same time and wants to go outside.  He eats at 6am.  If you're 5 minutes late he'll tell you about it in no uncertain words terms.

At 7:15am he wants to go outside again, not to take care of any bodily function, but just to take a stroll.  Before K goes to work he wants to play chase round the house.  That's a new one.  K did it a couple days in a row and now it's a part of his daily routine.

His other new one is at 7:15pm....that's ice cream time.  I'll often have a small (Weight Watchers) ice cream bar, and he gets to lick the stick when I'm finished.  He doesn't like to be told "no", but he's learning, much to his chagrin.  He's definitely a creature of habit.

Oh....gotta go.  Luke's calling.  ;)

Happy Hump Day.

S

An offer they can't refuse....

Good morning world!

I heard on the Happy News this morning that men are helping out around the house more these days.  Not much more, but more than the 0% from days past.  The report said that women spend 52 minutes a day doing housework while men do 16 minutes a day, and women do 70% of the laundry, too.

Another advantage to downsizing to a much smaller place....there's less to clean.  I make up the bed 'cause I'm the last one up.  K does 90% of the cooking, while I do 90% of the clean up.  The laundry is pretty much 50-50.  A housekeeper every other week for a few hours does the heavy lifting.  We could do it ourselves, but after all these years Geneva is like family.  She stays.  

How about at your casa?

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Let's see....first there were the Castelano's, the Gambino's, and the Bonanno's, and now we have the USB's, the RBS's, the Citi's, the JPMorganChase's and a bunch more, too.  The list of mafia outfits grows every day.  HSBC just paid a $1.9B fine for money laundering.  (They helped Iran and the Mexican drug cartels.)  A dozen other banks are ratting on each other over their interest-rate-rigging scandal in the UK.  (Their defense....the others were more guilty than they were.)  

Now there are a combined TRILLION dollars in claims pending against BofA, JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and others over their fraudulent mortgage securities businesses.  The banks will probably settle for something like $400B.  (Does this mean they'll get away with the other $600B?  How is that fair?)  

The only thing missing from this organized crime drama is some executive "whacking" in broad daylight while they're eating their spaghetti dinners.  (Personally I'd classify that as "justifiable homicide".)

First we had "too big to fail".  Now we have "too big to indict".  It seems the Feds are offering plea bargains to the banks rather than indicting their ivory tower Dons because they're afraid a guilty verdict in court would scare away investors and the banks would go belly-up.  Then us taxpayers would get stuck with the clean up.

The message here....if you're gonna commit a crime, make it a BIG ONE!

Now, unless you're a banker....have a nice day.  :)

S

Let it snow, let it snow....

Twenty eight degrees, 21 mph winds, and light snow.  Yep, I'd say I got the winter weather I've wanted.  I have my winter coat, gloves, and wool cap ready.  It won't last long....'till noon maybe....but I'll enjoy it for the few hours it's here.

No, this was our neighborhood two years ago, not today.  But I hope to see something like this again this year before winter is over.  FYI, this was all gone two days later when the temp was back in the 60's.  That's Texas weather for you.

Luke the Wonder Dog doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm for winter.  K took him out first thing this morning, and as he stepped out of the building he stopped, looked north, south, and up at the snow falling, then did a 180 and walked back inside.  I guess he didn't have to "go" after all.

Is it just me or does it seem to you, too, that the Christmas season lethargy has already set in?  Work seems to slow noticeably, people seem more laid back / less driven.  Maybe it's just my advanced age (hey, don't agree so fast!) but doesn't that usually happen a week or so before Christmas?  We're still two weeks away.  

It's a slow news day.  That's all I have.  Happy Monday everyone.  :)

S

Some day his "Wanted" poster will be on the Post Office bulletin board

ATTITUDE

Something Luke Park has in abundance.

Lemme tell you what K's dog did earlier today:  This morning K took him on a long walk, and as there was a lot of dew on the grass he came back wet.  He was dirty anyway so K decided to just give him a bath.  Apparently he didn't want a bath.  

After she towel-dried him off a bit she went into the kitchen to fix his breakfast.  While she was at the sink washing out his bowl he pee'd on the floor right behind where she was standing!  Sure enough she took a small step back right into his puddle.  He got his revenge.  No telling what the 'lil bastard would have done if he'd had thumbs.  :)

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It looks like winter might finally make an appearance in North Texas.  A cold front is expected later this evening, dropping temps into the 20's with the high tomorrow only in the 30's. They're even saying we might have some snow flurries.  I'm sure I'll turn on the local news tomorrow morning to find "Team Coverage" of this "major" weather event.

"And in other news, California slides off into the Pacific and Vladimir Putin comes out of the closet, but now back to Brent in downtown Dallas where several snowflakes have reportedly been seen."

Now where'd I put that coat?

S

Man Logic

Everything you read these days says being "preservative free" is a virtue.  Why?  What's wrong with preservatives? Webster says "preserve" means "to keep safe from decomposition".  A hundred years ago before we had preservatives people lived to be on average 60.  Today most of us make it to at least 75 or 80.  I'm thinking preservatives have something to do with that.

The Most Interesting Man in the World is in his 70's.

Sophia Loren is pushing 80.  Wouldn't you agree they're "well preserved"?

Gluten free, pootin free....I want preservatives.  Man Logic.

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What brought this to mind was this morning while making whop-'ems I glanced at the label and sure enough, there they were....preservatives.

Hmm?  You know....whop-'ems.  Canned biscuits.

You "whop 'em" against the edge of the counter and the can explodes....

Which brings to mind a whole 'nuther subject:  Does anyone cook from scratch anymore?   Be honest now.  My mom, rest her soul, was a lousy cook.  She knew it and even made jokes about her lack of cooking skills.  She wouldn't have known how to make a biscuit if her life depended on it.  Whop-'ems made it so darn easy, why bother learning ?

When / if you bake a cake, do you start from scratch or do you start with a boxed cake mix?  Do you buy pre-made pie shells?  Surely, unless maybe you're first generation immigrant Italian, you don't make your own pasta.  I think at this point in my life if I tasted something truly cooked from scratch I'd wonder...."this doesn't taste right.  What's wrong with it?"

To go with my biscuits this morning I made some gravy, too.  No, I didn't mix flour and water...no, wait...that's paste.  Flour and milk and....er....  I just used a mix....

It was darn good, too.  And besides, this is now The American Way.  God Bless America, and preservatives! 

Man Logic.  :)

S